Miller attempts to address concerns over farm subsidies

QUINCY — U.S. Rep. Mary Miller (R-15, Illinois) told a group of Adams County Farm Bureau members Friday she has been in meetings with President Donald Trump and his advisor Elon Musk to stress the importance of family farms.

“The government is so bloated and inefficient, and President Trump wants to make it work better for us,” Miller said. “Elon Musk did bring up hat they’ve let the agencies be involved in some of the cuts, and they’re going to try to do a better job in light of rooting out the inefficiencies.”

Musk, who has been placed in charge of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.), has had the most prominent role of anyone in Trump’s administration in the president’s first few weeks in office.

“I do have regular contact with President Trump and the people in his administration,” Miller said. “I had a back and forth with (USDA) Secretary (Brooke) Rollins this morning, and I’m going with the Ag Committee to meet with her on Tuesday evening.”

Miller said nearly $10 billion of economic relief payments to farmers should be released by March 20. Many producers count on the payments to prepare for planting season.

“I know that’s a huge concern for everybody, and I I feel super confident that President Trump cares deeply about American farmers and all of us,” she said. “He’s been in office for a month now, but we have suffered through four years of inflation and lack lackadaisical trade policies, and President Trump wants American agriculture to thrive.”

Miller and her husband Chris, a Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives, have a family farm in East Central Illinois.

“It’s been a great life to be involved in agriculture and to raise our children on the farm,” she said. “But I wouldn’t describe agriculture as thriving over the last decade. They’re not going to eliminate USDA funding. I’m sure some of you are concerned about that. It’s a pause.”

That also included CRP payments, which Miller said are also important. She said farmland should not be used for solar farms.

“President Trump is highly opposed to covering our farm ground with solar and wind energy, which is inefficient and unaffordable,” she said. “But I don’t believe he’s going to take a sledgehammer to ethanol.”

While the majority of Miller’s discussion centered around agriculture, one audience member asked about Quincy’s Internal Revenue Service office, which has been listed as being on D.O.G.E.’s lease cancellation list. The person who asked they question said they didn’t even know Quincy had an IRS office.

“It’s just that what we’ve been doing is unsustainable,” Miller said. “Same with Illinois. We cannot continue down the path we’re going. And really, Illinois is in a way worse because we don’t have a printing press, which I’m not into printing money, but we are in trouble. We just cannot continue it. And I do have to say, at least we’re wasting money in our country instead of sending it overseas to fund every terrorist group in the world, some people should go to prison for that.

“I assure you that my top priority is to stand up for producers and the family farm and all the tools they need and all the help that they need, but I do have to say, on the other hand, our federal debt is unsustainable. It is a national security threat … President Trump has quite a challenge in front of him, and he said the other night, I know for a fact he cares about us farmers, but he acknowledged that there’s going to be pain, and you know, we’re experiencing it.”

Illinois State Representatives Kyle Moore, C.D. Davidsmeyer and Norine Hammond and Illinois State Senator Neil Anderson also took questions and spoke to Farm Bureau members.